Weber calls for Obama to make a decision on Keystone Pipeline

In the midst of a showdown with Syria and multiple political battles at home, including the Affordable Care Act and immigration reform, another issue is trying to lift itself back into the spotlight: the Keystone Pipeline.

Texas Rep. Randy Weber, during the 2013 Petrochemical and Maritime Outlook Conference last Thursday, called on President Obama to make his decision on whether or not he would approve the pipeline.

“When I spoke with the President, he said ‘We’re working on it and should have an answer in three weeks.’ That was in March. We’re still waiting,” Weber said, according to yournewshouston.com. “On September 17, it will be five years since the permit application for Keystone Pipeline was submitted.”

Currently, Canadian energy company TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline begins in Alberta, Canada, crosses the U.S. border in North Dakota and travels south to the border of Nebraska and Kansas. At that point, the pipeline diverges into two channels.

Map by TransCanada of the existing and proposed Keystone XL Pipelines

The first arm of the pipeline turns east, ending in Patoka, Illinois. The second continues south to Cushing, Oklahoma – for now. That is where Texas comes in.

A major piece of TransCanada’s plans to expand the Keystone Pipeline, which is currently underway, is the extension of the pipeline to southeast Texas, where there are many more oil refineries to deal with the huge flow of oil.

The second piece of the expansion is a new, larger pipeline connecting Alberta to Kansas in a more direct route that takes advantage of the Bakken Shale region of eastern Montana and western North Dakota, according to StateImpact.

Weber cited the decrease in foreign oil reliance that the expansion of the Canadian pipeline would provide as one of his main reasons for supporting it.

While the extension from Oklahoma to Texas has proceeded with relative ease, the northern piece of the Keystone’s pipeline has been faced with delays. Due to the fact the new pipeline would cross the U.S.-Canadian border, it requires approval from President Obama before the construction can begin.

“The Keystone pipeline will bring 830,000 barrels of oil a day, roughly 40 percent of what we import from the Middle East. I would rather buy oil from nations that like us, as opposed to those over in the Middle East that hate us,” said Weber.

Weber also claimed that over the life of the project, the pipeline expansion would bring 20,000 jobs and $5.2 billion in property taxes, according to yourhoustonnews.com.

It is worth noting, however, that Weber’s estimate appears to be based on TransCanada’s projections. The U.S. State Department estimated a slimmer 5,000-6,000 jobs that would be created by the project, according to StateImpact.

While supporters of the pipeline make their case on decreased oil reliance in the Middle East and job creation, those who oppose the pipeline warn that it could have dire consequences for the environment.

“The pipeline would completely change the rate at which the oil comes out of the ground,” said billionaire anti-Keystone activist Tom Steyer, according to The New Yorker. “It would enable a much faster development, three times as fast. This is the size of Florida…. This is going to go on for decades. It’s not like we’re enabling a Shell station to be open after midnight.”

Opponents of the pipeline worry that some of the consequences of exploiting the Canadian oil sands could be harmful to the local ecosystem as well as the areas through which it is transported.

The Friends of the Earth, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and political pressure in environmental issues, suggests that, among others, the pipeline could do damage to forests, fresh water reserves and indigenous populations.

With the two sides lobbying hard for his support, President Obama faces a tough decision that may come to define the legacy of his presidency’s environment policy.

The Obama administration is not expected to make a decision on the approval of the new Alberta-Kansas pipeline until late 2013 at the earliest, according to StateImpact.